Cheap flights or maybe not

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

By Barbara Braidwood and Rick Cropp, The Province

Bram Stoker's airline

BRAM STOKER’S AIRLINE

The first page of Blue Air’s website (blueairweb.com), even though it is in Romanian, will make any traveller whine like a dog waiting for breakfast. Flashing across the bottom of the screen are European city pairs with prices from €20 ($27) blinking beside them.

Click on the British flag in the top right for the English translation and you’ll read that the €20 airfares for London to Bucharest or Dublin to Bucharest are teasers with “limited seating”. Blue Air is just taking a page from some of the other European budget airlines advertising.

It also turns out that Blue Air’s regular fares (Rome to Bucharest from $47 US; Paris to Bucharest from $67 US or London to Bucharest from $74 US are incredibly cheap but with an itty bitty hitch. Our excitement at these prices began to wane when we noticed that the menu was a little Monty Pythonish. You can have any cheap fare as long as you are going to Bucharest.

All is not lost, however, you can occasionally save some money by going the long way around to another destination, such as flying via Bucharest in your routing from London to Madrid.

LLAMA LOVE

Llama Expeditions (llamaexpeditions.com) is reducing the price by $200 US on its llama trek to Machu Picchu. Among other things you will explore Inca ruins, barter in the world famous market of Pisac, see the salt pans of Maras, soak in the Lares Hot Springs, tour the ancient village of Ollantaytambo and most of all, ask yourself why, oh, why you didn’t hit the gym twice a day. (The trek is only for those in excellent condition. One person said that Machu Picchu was 10 times as hard as climbing Kilimanjaro. It is steep all the time.)

The nine-day trip includes accommodations, transfers, entrance fees for scheduled tours and archaeological sites, many meals, transportation (private cars, trains, and buses) and more. The land only price starts at $3,592 US.

DOWNTON ABBEY FINALE

We can hardly bear to think about it, but the Downton Abbey Season 3 Finale is coming up. Victoria’s Oak Bay Beach Hotel Manor House (oakbaybeachhotel.com) plans to usher it out in style with the Night At Downton package on Feb. 17.

Priced from $289 per couple it includes a reception and dinner before the finale, an overnight stay, complimentary valet parking and more.

A portion of the proceeds from the package will benefit KCTS and the David Foster Foundation.